As is well known, a solvent is a substance in which another substance is dissolved, thereby forming a solution. Chemical solvents are typically required to be as pure as possible (i.e., free from external elements) prior to use in chemical experiments or simple combination so that results of such chemical experiments or simple combination are as accurate as possible. Specifically, elements such as water and oxygen are not desirable components of a solvent that is to be used in the combination of chemicals, such as during such chemical experiments. Unfortunately, the existence of water and oxygen in a solvent prior to combination with another substance may cause experimental results to be improper and unreliable. Even further, current inexpensive storage methods provide mass storage of solvents within cylinders or other vessels where the solvent has not been purified from elements such as water and oxygen. Therefore, there is a strong desire to use pure solvents (i.e., solvents having minimal to no external elements such as water or oxygen) during chemical experiments, and generally, in situations where the solvent is to be combined with another substance, or solute, thereby providing a desired chemical reaction.
Different methods are presently used in the attempt to remove undesirable elements from a solvent, thereby resulting in a pure solvent. As an example, one present method of removing undesirable elements includes use of boiling procedures. Specifically, a portion of the solvent that is to be purified is boiled with an open flame in an attempt to remove elements such as water from the solvent. Unfortunately, if the solvent is heated to its flash point, an unsafe environment is provided where the solvent may ignite.
To address the abovementioned unsafe environment, manual filtration of solvents has been proposed where filtration is controlled by manual turning of hand valves that introduce the solvent to a filter, and finally to a collection vessel. To use such manual filtration units, the user of the manual filtration unit is required to understand functions provided by the manual filtration unit. Specifically, the user is required to understand which hand valves control flow of the solvent, which hand valves control flow of a working gas used to control flow of the solvent, what order to open the hand valves, etc. In addition, the same manual filtration unit may filter multiple solvents. Lack of knowledge of use of the manual filtration unit may result in opening of a wrong hand valve causing combination of more than one solvent, where, as is well known in the art, the combination of certain solvents may result in emission of toxic gases or combustion. In addition, such lack of knowledge may result in a wrong sequence of hand valve opening causing excessive pressure within the manual filtration unit or a lack of adequate pressure within the manual filtration unit.
In addition, the user of the manual filtration unit must remember to manually shut off flow of the substrate via the appropriate hand valves when a desired amount of filtered substrate is obtained. Unfortunately, if the flow of substrate is not manually shut off, the solvent may overflow the collection vessel or continue to flow after removal of the collection vessel, thereby providing an unsafe environment where toxic gases may be emitted or, even worse, a combustible solvent may overflow from the manual filtration unit to the floor or general working area.
Even further, manual filtration units provide the resulting filtered solvent in an open environment where minor fumes associated with the filtered solvent may be emitted into a working environment. Unfortunately, gathering of these fumes may provide an environment that is harmful to the user of the manual filtration unit and those in the immediate area. In addition, the open environment subjects the filtered solvent to Oxygen, which may be an undesirable element in a chemical experiment involving use of the filtered solvent.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.